I earned my PhD in physics (interdisciplinary applied mathematics and mathematical physics) from Delaware State University. I chose to do my qualifier exams in physics rather than applied mathematics because I like the physics a little more, I was afraid to take qualifier exams from strangers and I knew the people in the physics department, and even though the math qualifier can be done in less than a day the physics qualifiers take four full days to do closed book, I felt safer taking them. I had crammed more than a year for them.
I have never done well in the job market so I can't afford to buy expensive audio equipment but I taught myself how to design the kind of tube preamplifiers and amplifiers I like and build them myself.
I ran into the same concern that my personal magnum opus amplifier which uses radio station transmitter tubes in SET configuration might be a fire hazard. I don't claim to be a Bob Carver (even though my first name is Robert), but, running the transmitting tubes at only 1000 Volts and drawing only 125 ma, I built them in cabinets which are ventilated better than a lamp which takes 100 Watt light bulbs - the tubes I use take 10 Volts at 10 Amperes to heat the cathodes.
I built many safety features into this: every power supply is fused, the 1000 Volt circuits are contained in Plexiglas cabinets with plenty of cooling space and ventilation and impossible for anybody to accidentally touch the over-rated fast diodes and B+ capacitor connections. The output transformer which carries 125 ma is rated at 300 ma and 4000 Volts pot tested but the case and minus side of the speaker outputs are grounded in several places and the wires which carry 1000 Volts are slipped through plastic tubes for added safety. I never had any problems with this amplifier which I have been using for a year and a half and have been perfecting; e.g. trying different coupling transformers to the grids of the output tubes.
I know nothing about how to start, let alone run, a business, but I dream of someday someone who does giving me a chance to sell my design efforts, or, at least, to find people who would pay me to custom build tube amplifiers for them.
I have never done well in the job market so I can't afford to buy expensive audio equipment but I taught myself how to design the kind of tube preamplifiers and amplifiers I like and build them myself.
I ran into the same concern that my personal magnum opus amplifier which uses radio station transmitter tubes in SET configuration might be a fire hazard. I don't claim to be a Bob Carver (even though my first name is Robert), but, running the transmitting tubes at only 1000 Volts and drawing only 125 ma, I built them in cabinets which are ventilated better than a lamp which takes 100 Watt light bulbs - the tubes I use take 10 Volts at 10 Amperes to heat the cathodes.
I built many safety features into this: every power supply is fused, the 1000 Volt circuits are contained in Plexiglas cabinets with plenty of cooling space and ventilation and impossible for anybody to accidentally touch the over-rated fast diodes and B+ capacitor connections. The output transformer which carries 125 ma is rated at 300 ma and 4000 Volts pot tested but the case and minus side of the speaker outputs are grounded in several places and the wires which carry 1000 Volts are slipped through plastic tubes for added safety. I never had any problems with this amplifier which I have been using for a year and a half and have been perfecting; e.g. trying different coupling transformers to the grids of the output tubes.
I know nothing about how to start, let alone run, a business, but I dream of someday someone who does giving me a chance to sell my design efforts, or, at least, to find people who would pay me to custom build tube amplifiers for them.